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Scranton School Board member Bob Lesh looks on during a work session at the district administration building on Monday, Sept. 24, 2018.
Christopher Dolan / Staff Photographer

The slow learners on the Scranton School Board sent a clear message Monday night: “One Harvard know-it-all is enough. Whiz kids need not apply.”

The recent death of Director Carol Oleski created an opening the board must fill over the next few weeks. After brief discussion about what qualifications applicants should demonstrate, the least qualified current director spoke up.

“There’s nothing that states you have to be an Einstein to be on the school board,” Bob Lesh said. “I drove a bus.”

Yes, he did. Bob also dropped out of high school and “served” two terms as president while the district was driven to the brink of extinction. Described as “BL” in a recent grand jury report, Lesh has denied receiving free vehicle inspections from Dan Sansky, the former district “fleet manager” now charged with seven felonies, accused of fleecing taxpayers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through overbilling and phony repair bills.

What kind of applicant might apply for a seat on a school board at war with itself and its superintendent in a district facing insurmountable debt and a state corruption investigation?

Probably not an Einstein.

Harvard MBA Paige Gebhardt Cognetti joined the board in December after an 8-0 vote. Lesh voted for Cognetti, but on a scoring rubric filled out prior to the vote, Lesh gave Cognetti a rating of 16 out of a possible 50, which amounts to an F-minus.

The Harvard know-it-all and the high-school dropout haven’t exactly gotten along since. At an April meeting, Cognetti argued that the district should release public records about Sansky to The Times-Tribune. Lesh disagreed. After a heated exchange, he told Cognetti to “blow it out her ass.”

The newspaper received the records by more conventional means.

Lesh resisted another Cognetti push for transparency Monday, when she tried to get the board and Superintendent Alexis Kirijan, Ed.D., to address a letter in which Kirijan accused the board of sexual and ethnic harassment.

The letter from Kirijan’s lawyer inspired the board to secretly hire a lawyer to investigate the matter, a violation of the Sunshine Law.

Solicitor John Minora insisted the hire wasn’t illegal, “and even if it was, it could be cured by a subsequent vote.”

This kind of advice is why Minora will soon be the board’s ex-solicitor.

Kirijan said she was “disappointed” that the letter leaked and demanded to know who was responsible. No one took credit, but Lesh took umbrage at the leak.

“This board has gone in the wrong direction in airing personnel issues” in the newspaper, he said. “That trust has been violated.”

Being lectured about trust and transparency by “BL” is like learning Spanish from a chihuahua.

You don’t have to be an Einstein to be on the school board, but you should at least know that the theory of relativity has nothing to do with nepotism.

Applicants for the open Scranton School Board seat should email a résumé and a completed application to Virginia.orr@ssdedu.org or send by mail to Board Secretary, 425 N. Washington Ave., Scranton, PA 18503. Applications and résumés will be accepted until noon on Friday, Oct. 26.

Applications are available at the Administration Building or email the board secretary.

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